Assisted Hatching - Does it really help with implantation?

[Anonymous]

I'm 32 and on my second cycle of IVF (strictly due to male factor). My RE gave me the option of doing assisted hatching on the ONE egg they are going to transfer to help with implantation since the Dr feels that was the reason why the first cycle didn't work. (FYI - We don't want to risk having multiples so we're gambling and putting only one egg back for this cycle).

Has anyone under 35 used assisted hatching before? Do you think it helped? I'm just concerned its going to hurt the quality of the egg before they even do the transfer. Should I just do a Day 5 transfer instead? I'm not sure what to agree to.

Thanks for your advice in advance!

[Anonymous]

This study by SG found that AH does not improve pregnancy rates in good prognosis patients. Title of study is "Laser assisted hatching in good prognosis patients undergoing in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer: a randomized controlled trial."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17094975?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Good luck to you!!!!

[Anonymous]

Did 2 IVF fresh cycles at age 31. First cycle, no AH and chemical pregnancy. Second cycle, AH and successful twin pregnancy (transferred 2). This is just my experience obviously, but it appeared to work for us. Another thing to note is that our embryo quality in the 2nd cycle was superior to the first cycle embryos. So, unclear if it was better embryos or AH, but both embies took.

Best of luck!

[Anonymous]

I don't think AH hurts the quality of the egg. I think there may be some women under age 35 that do produce eggs with a thicker zona and for them AH would help. Did your RE give you a reason why s/he thought this was the problem, e.g. did the zona look thick? Or does s/he just don't know why your last cycle failed? Just because everything looks good doesn't mean a cycle is going to work. Even for donor egg cycles, which tend to have the highest success rates, the rate is only in the 60% range. So one failed cycle could just mean you didn't fall on the right side of the success range.

BTW - doing a 5-day verses 3-day transfer doesn't effect the zona issue, although it would help you pick out the right one to transfer.

[Anonymous]

We used AH when I was 35 on our 3d cycle and are 35 weeks pregnant w/no complications. Did IVF/ICSI, also due to male factor. First cycle (no AH) resulted in no pregnancy. Second cycle was FET, for which AH was standard protocol. Got pregnant and the embryo split into twins; we miscarried both at 9 weeks. Decided to do AH on this most recent, fresh cycle and are glad we did. Our embryo quality was the same across both fresh cycles.

[Anonymous]

AH can also be valuable when used in younger women when the embryos are slow growing.
I'm 34 and a SG patient. We recently transferred one day 6 blast. It wasn't quite a blast on day 5 (or was a very early blast) so SG elected to wait, let it mature and do a day 6 transfer. They did AH prior to transfer. Apparently assisted hatching can help a slow blastocyst catch up to where it should be.

In any case, this blast was both slow and pretty crummy looking and yet I'm now 9 weeks pregnant.

[Anonymous]

OP here...thank you all so much for your posts! All have been very helpful and informative.

[Anonymous]

I had my first IVF at the age of 37 and now have a day daughter (now 2) from a transfer of 2 perfect blasts (4AA) and got pregnant with one. I had my 2nd IVF a couple weeks before I turned 40 and transferred 2 blasts with AH and am not 19 weeks pregnant with B/G twins. I truely believe it helps aid with implantation.